Ecotravel rolls out into UK schools

Thomson and First Choice move closer to sustainable pledge by reaching over 140,000 school pupils with key environmental messages

Working closely with National Schools Partnership (NSP) to incorporate the innovative ‘Eco-traveller’ programme into the National Curriculum, Thomson and First Choice’s sustainable tourism key messages have reached over 1,000 schools across the UK and more than 140,000 children.

The Eco-traveller programme, which was launched in June this year, includes a series of activity sheets with teacher notes and an online quiz game for use in the classroom and at home. All these teaching aids are designed to teach primary school children at Key Stage two (aged seven to 11) about the steps that they can take to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Activity sheets on destinations such as Kenya encourage the children to think laterally about ecosystems and the needs of animals and humans, whilst spotting the problems that could be caused by climate change in communities around the world. The children also learn about the issues that holiday destinations could face, with a detailed look at the sustainable tourism projects that Thomson and First Choice are involved in.

School pupils have been learning about recycling, reducing water usage and packing lightly when going on holiday – they also had the opportunity to enter a competition by outlining their ‘green’ pledge in a bid to win a family holiday courtesy of Thomson and First Choice. Four pupils from across the UK were awarded the prize for their hard work.

Christian Cull, Director of Communications for Thomson and First Choice, said:

“We have had really positive feedback from pupils, parents and teachers and want to continue the Eco-traveller project into next year. This activity goes some way towards fulfilling one of our ‘Holidays Forever’ commitments: engaging half a million children in sustainable tourism. We also know that our customers want to travel with a tour operator that cares about the environment, so this is a really important area for us to continue to review and improve on. ”

There were four winners overall from across the UK, each winning a £2,000 holiday voucher.

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Get your copy at a special offer price: HERE